The Revolution In Virginia, 1775-1783

Virginia's role in the American Revolution is in part a familiar story. From the earliest days of the Stamp Act crisis, the colony was at the forefront of the American challenge to British authority.

In the years following the outbreak of hostilities, individual Virginians emerged as some of the leading figures in continental affairs. Washington in command of the Continental Army, Jefferson as author of the Declaration of Independence and Madison at the Federal Convention are only the most noteworthy examples. Less well-known but equally compelling is the history of Virginia during the years of the revolutionary war. In "The Revolution in Virginia, 1775-1783" John E. Selby provides the most comprehensive account ever published of these difficult years.

If Virginians approached independence with a greater unanimity than any other colony, they faced far more divisive challenges in the prosecution of the war. Selby's story is largely the tale of how they met these demands. With little assistance from Continental forces, Virginia patriots expelled British troops and a royal governor who attempted to incite a slave revolt. The state organized the militia for its own defense and struggled to fill its quota of supplies and soldiers for the Continental Army. Threats from Indians and British troops required separate expeditions to protect Virginia's extensive western territories. In the final years of the war, a British invasion again required the mobilization of a population exhausted by the war effort and flagging in morale.

Before the Continental Congress declared independence, the Virginia Convention adopted a Declaration of Rights and drafted a constitution that created a new structure of state and local government. The responsibilities of the new government were overwhelming. Military supply contracts, the revision of the legal code and demands for an end to the religious establishment were among the issues that provoked the most contentious political debates Virginians had known in the 18th century. In addition to their creation of a new government and the organization of the military, Virginia's political leaders faced the task of reordering an economy long-dependent on trade with the mother country.

Selby, a professor and chairman of the department of history at the College of William and Mary, carefully balances his story between the military affairs that affected every aspect of life in Virginia and the ongoing task of developing a working system of republican government. He is particulary adept at sorting out the complicated administraiton of military and commercial policy as well as political affairs in the new state.

Selby perhaps devotes too much attention to public affairs at the expense of the inevitable social disruption that accompanied the displacement of British authority, but his account of governmental and military affairs in Virginia promises to stand as the authoritative survey.

This broad view of public affairs in Virginia during the Revolution reflects an impressive command of the diverse sources of Virginia history in this period. Selby draws on the public record of the state government, British archival sources and private correspondence as well as the scattered secondary literature. The resulting narrative demonstrates how fragile independence was during the war years and makes more impressive the founders success in formulating a constitutional order of politics.